Children's home run by Warrington Borough Council

Inspection report children‟s home: SC447930 1 SC447930 Registered provider: Warrington Borough Council

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This children‟s home is operated by a local authority. It is registered for two young people who have emotional and/or behavioural problems.

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Information about this children’s home

The newly appointed registered manager has recently resigned from his position.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious and widespread failures that mean that children and young people are not protected and their welfare is not promoted and the care and experiences of children and young people are poor and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 23 November 2017

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children‟s home: SC447930 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

23/11/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good 06/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 22/09/2016 Full Good 17/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children‟s home: SC447930 3

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meet the Care Standards Act 2000, Children‟s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the „Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

help each child to achieve the child‟s education and training targets, as recorded in the child‟s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally. (Regulation 8 (2)(a)(i)(v)) 27/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

meet each child‟s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child‟s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

encourage each child to take responsibility for the child‟s behaviour, in accordance with the child‟s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

de-escalate confrontations with or between children, or potentially violent behaviour by children. (Regulation 11 (2)(a)(i)(iii)(xi)) 27/07/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: SC447930 4 *The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child‟s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe; and

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child‟s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child‟s health. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(vi)(d)) 27/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person must enable, inspire and lead a culture in relation to the children‟s home that—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home‟s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child; and

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(c)(d)(h)) 27/07/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: SC447930 5 *The care planning standard is that children receive effectively planned care in or through the children‟s home; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the homes statement of purpose. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)) 27/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that each permanent appointment of an employee is subject to the satisfactory completion of a period of probation. (Regulation 33 (1)(b)) 27/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child; are kept up to date; and are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c)) 27/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

Schedule 4 sets out the other information that the registered person must keep in relation to a children‟s home.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4. (Regulation 37 (1)(2)(a)) 27/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (“a quality of care review”) at least once every 6 months. (Regulation 45 (1)) 27/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Poor leadership and management of the home, including inadequate management of risk, have compromised young people‟s safety and not promoted their welfare. The care Inspection report children‟s home: SC447930 6 and experiences of young people are poor, and this has affected their progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Young people are admitted to the home with high-risk behaviours, which staff are unable to manage. Consequently, staff are unable to keep young people safe or meet their individual needs. As a result, young people have gone missing from the home and have engaged in risk-taking behaviour, which has compromised their welfare and safety. Young people have moved into the home without a clear assessment of their compatibility with other young people living in the home. This does not ensure that young people are appropriately placed and that the staff team is able to meet their needs. This has resulted in young people negatively influencing each other in the home and there has been an increase in the levels of risk in the home and in the local community. Care planning arrangements are poor. Transitions for young people in and out of the home are not child-focused or carefully planned. Young people have been admitted in an

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

emergency without sufficient planning or information for staff to meet young people‟s individual needs. For example, staff had to purchase a camp bed for a young person admitted in an emergency, as the home did not have a bed for them to sleep on. This does not ensure that young people have a positive experience when arriving at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Young people are admitted to the home by managers in the local authority who do not directly manage the home or have a detailed knowledge of the home, the staff or the other young people. This is not in line with the home‟s statement of purpose.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Young people make little progress from their starting points. Not all young people attend education. There is a lack of structure for young people during education hours. Staff are not providing the support required to each young person to achieve their education and training targets as recorded in young people‟s plans. Poor routines, and a lack of structure to young people‟s day, limit young people‟s opportunities to reach their full educational potential.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The quality of young people‟s experiences in the home is poor. Staff are unable to engage young people effectively and, as a result, young people do not engage in activities in or outside of the home. Instead, young people spend a significant period away from the home, often engaging in criminal or risk-taking behaviours, which affects their future life chances and places them at risk of harm.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

Staff fail to take effective action to keep young people who are at risk of child sexual exploitation and criminal exploitation safe. For example, a planned activity to take a young person fishing did not take place, as the young person requested that the staff member took him to the train station instead. When asked where the young person had gone, the staff member said, „He is probably causing trouble somewhere. I don‟t know where he is going.‟ This fails to demonstrate how staff take effective action to keep young people safe. Inspection report children‟s home: SC447930 7 Behaviour management in the home is poor. Staff lack effective strategies to manage the challenging behaviour of the young people living in the home and are unable to de- escalate situations effectively. As a result, young people have caused damage to the home and threatened the staff team and members of the public. Police assistance has

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

been required to manage the young people‟s behaviours. Because staff are unable to engage with young people effectively, young people do not learn how to manage their feelings and behaviour safely.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

Since the last inspection, there has been a significant increase in missing from home incidents. Staff are not always aware that young people have left the home during the night, or when and if they have returned. This does not ensure that staff have taken appropriate action to safeguard young people. There are missing from home assessments for each young person, but the written records do not always evidence that plans are followed or make clear that return home interviews have been undertaken.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

Staff do not always follow risk management strategies identified in young people‟s risk assessments to reduce risk and keep young people safe. For example, one plan states that staff must monitor the young person if he returns home under the influence of alcohol or unknown substances. Not all staff spoken with during the inspection understood that this was in his plan. Furthermore, his daily records do not indicate that when he returns to the home, under the influence of unknown substances, that staff monitor his safety and welfare. This fails to demonstrate that appropriate action is taken to protect young people.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

Staff work with the police and specialist teams dealing with child sexual exploitation, through attending meetings and requesting strategy meetings, but this work is not always effective at keeping young people safe, as young people have continued to go missing and place themselves in situations of risk. Consequently, young people‟s placements are ended because staff are unable to keep young people safe from harm. Health and safety are not prioritised in the home to ensure that young people and staff are kept safe from harm. Young people smoke in their bedrooms and there is no clear strategy in place to prevent this behaviour. There is poor management oversight of whether actions in an independent fire risk assessment are completed. The assessment identifies that fire doors are required on bedrooms and that certain doors in the home should not be propped open. However, this has not been actioned and therefore there

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

remains a risk to young people and staff in the home

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

Staff all receive safeguarding training. However, the provider has not ensured that all staff have received self-harm or ligature training, which was identified as a requirement at the last full inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The newly appointed registered manager has resigned from his role in the home, creating further instability and a lack of direction and managerial oversight in the home. The quality of care provided to young people has declined since the last full inspection Inspection report children‟s home: SC447930 8 and, as a result the experiences, progress and protection of young people are inadequate.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager has failed to ensure that the home is run in accordance with its statement of purpose, which is „to keep young people safe, give young people the opportunity to enjoy and achieve, try to ensure that they reach their potential and that their experiences within the home are positive‟.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers do not ensure that there are sufficient staff on duty to meet the needs of the young people. Staff work alone at night and sometimes during the day. They do not feel safe in doing so, given some of the behaviours of young people in the home. The local authority has implemented an out-of-hours system since the last inspection. This means that staff who are lone working can request management support if necessary. However, this is not being fully utilised by staff and is not effective should staff require immediate assistance to manage challenging behaviours.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers have failed to ensure that rosters accurately reflect the members of staff who are working in the home. There is not a clear record of who has worked or is working in the home. This is not safe practice for staff or young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers do not ensure that each permanent appointment of an employee is subject to the satisfactory completion of a period of probation. Some new staff are unclear about the outcome of their probation period and there are no records to evidence that the correct process is followed. This demonstrates a lack of management oversight in ensuring that staff have the necessary skills to work with young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Case recording is poor. There is an absence of the required documentation on the individual case files such as local authority care plans and personal education plans. This means that staff do not have all the required information on young people to inform their practice and to support the young people. Furthermore, records are not kept up to date and are not signed and dated by the author of each entry.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager, while he was in post, had not completed a review of the quality of care for the young people within the last six months and, as a result, has not identified or addressed shortfalls raised during this inspection.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the differences made to the lives of children and young people. They watched how professional staff work with children and young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care provided. Wherever possible, they talked to children and young people and their families. In addition, the inspectors have tried to understand what the children‟s home knows about how well it is performing, how well it is doing and what difference it is making for the children and young people whom it is trying to help, protect and look after. Inspection report children‟s home: SC447930 9 Using the „Social care common inspection framework‟, this inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service, how it meets the core functions of the service as set out in legislation, and to consider how well

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Information about this inspection

it complies with the Children‟s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the „Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟. Inspection report children‟s home: SC447930 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Children‟s Services Directorate, New Town House, Buttermarket Street, Warrington, Cheshire WA1 2NJ

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Inspector

Sarah Billett, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC447930 11 achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children‟s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children‟s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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